Robert Horton, Writing About Film

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About This Site

The Crop Duster has two goals. One is to organize links to my critical work: reviews written for The Herald (Everett, Washington) and Seattle Weekly; and public appearances and TV jobs. Selected past work for Film Comment and elsewhere is also linkified. You may also link to my website of 1980s reviews and learn more about my book on Frankenstein and my graphic novel, ROTTEN.

The second goal is to keep a daily record of films watched, annotated with brisk, brief comments. It's a slightly more advanced version of the movie list I kept, in Flair pen, thumbtacked next to my bed when I was twelve.

Annie. “Actually kind of fun on its own terms.” (Weekly version here.)

Foxcatcher. “Exists almost entirely as a single, sustained, skin-crawling mood.”

Elsa & Fred. “A few dashes of vinegar around the general feel-good mood.” (Weekly version here.)

At the Overlook Podcast, I talk with Steve Scher about a few holiday movies that might be lesser known than the usual run. Give a listen here, and then find a copy of Remember the Night.

Thanks to all who participated in last night’s “Critics Wrap” at the Frye Art Museum. Along with good talk about the best films of the year, it was the final event in the Magic Lantern program, which I had the honor of curating for the last 10 years. We had a reception after the panel discussion, and some very generous things got said, led off by Frye Director Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, and the Frye gave me a lovely present. I owe a big debt of gratitude to Mary Jane Knecht for bringing me to the Frye, to the Frye people for supporting Magic Lantern all these years, and to our well-spoken contributors Kathleen Murphy, Jim Emerson, and Richard T. Jameson (sorry Andrew Wright couldn’t make it last night). The panel will be broadcast on Seattle Channel and online later, and thanks too to Seattle Channel and Shannon Gee for bringing us to a bigger audience all this time. I’ll post something else about Magic Lantern later, but right now I’m humbled and grateful.